UCLA research team along with other space technology experts across the country are conducting laboratory experiments to unveil the physics behind space weather. Results of the laboratory experiments will be disclosed during the annual meeting of the American Physical society’s Division of Plasma Physics in New Orleans.

It has been reported that every second, the sun emits millions of tons of hot, charged plasma gas into space. This ‘solar wind’ interacts with the earth’s magnetosphere and gives rise to geomagnetic storms that can disrupt cell phone service, damage satellites and blackout power grids.